More life in Frozen Dead Guy Days’ return to Estes

ESTES PARK — Frozen Dead Guy Days, the quirky festival that sprang from tales of a Norwegian man’s cryogenically frozen corpse in a high-country Tuff-Shed, is back this month for its second run in Estes Park since being moved from its original home in Nederland.

Its organizers learned some things from the festival’s debut in Estes Park last spring, and hope most of the kinks — the unplanned ones, anyway — will be ironed out before this year’s March 14-17 event.

“We had more than 6,000 people show up last year, and that was a great turnout for the first event in Estes,” said Visit Estes Park CEO Kara Franker. “Last year we didn’t expect everyone to come at exactly the moment the gates opened. That was an amazing sight to see, but it was a bit of a line issue. We took notes from that and are opening more entrance points and streamlining the process of checking IDs.”

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Franker expects a similar-sized crowd this year, or maybe a bit more since the event has been spread over four days and has the added attraction of the International Cryonics Museum, which opened in December at the iconic Stanley Hotel and now houses the frozen remains of Bredo Morstoel, grandfather of Trygve Bauge, the founder of Boulder Reservoir’s New Year’s Day Polar Plunge.

Morstoel died in 1989 but was frozen by his family and shipped to the United States as part of Bauge’s hopes that someday the technology would be developed that could bring him back to life or create a younger genetic twin of him. Morstoel’s family had been paying people every two weeks to bring dry ice up to a Tuff-Shed above Nederland to keep Morstoel frozen, but he’s been moved to the new chamber at the museum with the help of the Scottsdale, Arizona, based nonprofit Alcor Life Extension Foundation, and visitors can see the “cryo chamber” where he’s housed or pose for photos inside a similar one.

Franker’s biggest concern this time, she said, is that “we’ve been watching the weather. It’s supposed to snow a few days ahead of the event, but we think by Saturday it’s going to be a really great day.”

Propelled by the usual wordplays based on death’s icy hand, the festivities will begin on Thursday, March 14, with a frozen ball drop to “kick off” the festival and a zombie bar crawl.

Friday, March 15, will bring an “Icebreaker” event in downtown’s Bond Park that Franker described as a “great taste of the festival before you have to go in and pay,”  followed by a new Frozen Sweets Stroll up and down Elkhorn Avenue. With a free punch card obtained in the park, guests can gain access to various shops, each offering a themed treat. Franker urged those interested to register in advance so that the shopkeepers will know how much of their confections to prepare.

Friday night will include a “brain freeze” event with live music at Lonigan’s Pub, a “Weekend at Bernie’s” beach party and bowling at Bull Pin Lanes, ice-carved cocktails from Longmont-based Dry Land Distillers, and the first of three days of psychic readings at the historic Park Theater .

Friday’s main event is the Blue Ball, a holdover from the festival’s Nederland days. “This year they’ve created a VIP package,” Franker said, “where folks who bought Blue Ball and festival tickets get early access to the festival on Saturday, entries to see Grandpa Bredo at the museum and a night at the Stanley.”

The festival’s main ticketed event comes Saturday, March 16, at the Estes Park Events Complex, which Franker described as “Grand Central Station.” Music and other events will roar from two indoor and one outdoor stage, while just outside will be the traditional coffin races, in which teams of “pallbearers” race head to head through a course full of snow, mud and obstacles as spectators watch from the rails and a grandstand. 

Franker said Alcor’s team of former Navy SEALs who moved Morstoel to his cool new home at the Stanley will put on a coffin-race demonstration at the event.

Saturday night will bring a “Dead Leprechaun St. Paddy’s Party” at the Bull Pin and a “Thick ‘n’ Thawed Burr-Lesque Show” at Lonigan’s.

Sunday, March 17, begins with a “Bands and Bloodys Brunch” at several area restaurants, other themed events at local pubs and a noontime Polar Plunge at Coffee on the Rocks, where costumed participants jump into the freezing waters of the Big Thompson River. 

Visit Estes Park has been working with local companies to provide shuttles and ride shares, Franker said, but reminded those who wish to park nearby that parking proceeds will benefit the Estes Park High School band.

“Our whole goal is to work on expanding the season and bring visitors into town during this part of the year,” Franker said. “Typically, this time of year is slower. Hopefully it will give a boost to our economy again.”